If you walked through the quad on a sunny day, you may have noticed the tightrope attached between two trees in the Freshman quad. If you did, you could not have missed the several brave souls walking across it. These acrobats are part of an upcoming club called the Amherst Tricking and Acrobatics Club (ATAC). Their mission: to spread the love of learning and performing tricks and acrobatics across the campus. We spoke with one of the founders, Robert Kwark, about the club, their aspirations and more!
The club was created by four members of the Class of 2017 last Spring, Robert Kwark, JD Nurme, David Cope Wang and Sean McHugh. The quartet bonded over their love of performing tricks and wanted to expand their expertise beyond backflips and twists. They designed a club that included all aspects of acrobatics like juggling, unicycling, parkour, and slacklining. While they are still in the works of becoming an official club on campus, that hasn’t stopped them from generating buzz across the student body.
As of right now, they are focused on slacklining. Slacklining is a balancing trick in which a rope is tied to two anchored points (in this case trees) and performers will walk across and do tricks. Slacklining is the more easy-going fraternal twin to tightroping, for those of you familiar with that balancing act. All are welcomed to experiment slacklining when they practice weekly on the quad. They recently ordered crash pads for those of you interested in doing more tricks than slacklining. ATAC hopes to get new members of all skill levels to join. ATAC is an opportunity that everyone should consider taking advantage of, including us, ladies.
Robert describes that females, especially those with dance or gymnastic experience, are ideal for learning tricks. Their flexibility allows for tricks like aerials to look more flawless when airborne. Even if you have never tricked before, you should join anyway. Once the club’s crash pads are delivered, they hope to have laid-back weekly meetings where everyone can come in and practice. The leaders of the club, Robert, JD, Sean and David, will be doing tricks on their own , but would be happy to teach newcomers a trick or two. They will also be around to spot those of you who know what you want to do, just need help doing it.
For those of you who want to start on your own now: Robert says the first step for a beginner is learning a backflip. He explains that a backflip is one of the most easiest tricks because of the position of your feet. Once you jump in the air and tuck your feet, you’ve already completed half of the trick. All you need to do is land and you have successfully completed your first backflip. If that doesn’t convince you, attend a meeting and try it for yourself. You won’t regret it!
ATAC also hopes to collaborate with other groups on campus. The founders of the club are also members of the Outing Club. Every Saturday, after a session of rock climbing, they use the cushy mat areas to practice their recently learned tricks . If you like rock climbing and acrobatics, Robert encourages you to join both clubs for double the fun. They also hope to collaborate with the UMASS parkour club in the future. Many of the members of ATAC already have good relations with the group and have worked with them informally in the past. The expertise of the UMASS parkour members could help improve the skills of newcomers and veterans alike.
For our readers who are interested in doing something unique and fun this year, you should join ATAC. They have a mailing list, amherstatac@gmail.com, in which their keep members updated with upcoming events. If you have any questions or talk to them if you see them on the quad…but maybe not during a flip.